Method of and means for taking energy from a source of natural or waste heat.



I C. H. BEADLE. METHOD OF AND MEANS FOR TAKING ENERGY FROM A SOURCE OFNATURAL 0R WASTE HEAT.

APPLICATIQN m'msEPT'. 3. 1915.

Patehted Feb. 8, 1916..

v fizverzza f' UNITED sT Es PATnNT "OFFICE;

CHARLES HYDE BEADLE; or SOUTHAMPTON, ENGLAND.

manic!) or AND MEANS iron Toall whom it'may concern:

Be it known that 1, CHARLES HYDE BEADLE, a subject of the King of GreatBritain residing ,at Southampton, Hampshire, lilngland, haveinvented anew and useful Improved Method of and Means for Taking Energy from aSourceof Natural or Waste Heat Into a Closed Cycle of ThermalOperations, of which the following is a specification.

,- v This invention relates to aclosed fluid I cycle and to a methodqfand means for op-' "erating the same whereby a gas or gaseous. "fluidis obtained from a liquid in which it hasentered into solution atasuitable pres:

' sure and temperature and from which it is efl'used by lowering gjthepressure or raising i' the temperature; This gaseous fluid afterefi'usion is utilized for example in a prime imover for doing work, foruseful warming.

purposes, or. for refrigeration (the' heat. thus lost beingreabsorbedfrom an exterior source), and the cycle completed'bythe gasreentering into- Solution in the liquid fromwhich it was elfuse'd. Insuch cyclesthe' efl'us ionof the gas has been caused byraisihlgthetemperature of the liquid'in which 1 t e p i 80..

' ingcooled and then delivered to an absorber (gas is insolution byexterior heat aptothe generator, the efl'used gas and liquid weakened bythe effusion'of gas bechamber in which "the gas reenters into solutionin the liquid,which is 'then-retu'rned j i to the generator through'a-warming cham 7 through which liquid with gas in solution her, forexam le, by a pump. Provision has also been ma e for temperaturetransference between some of the chambersthrough which the liquid andgas arejconducted, for example, from the absorber to the generator, 40.

and from the weak li Hid-cooling chamber to the, warming lcham er abovementioned therein passes to the generator. v

accordingto this invention, heat energy "is r Specification of LettersPatent.

Application m September 1915. Serial 110.48358.

. circuit.

from which gas dium exterior to t e' :ycle.

TAKING ENERGY FROM-TA sooner. or ATImAnon -WAS'1E HEAT.

Patented Feb. 8,1916.

taken into the liquid and gas, or either of them separately, only at Yapoint in the cycle diflerent from that where efiusion of gas v takesplace, 6,, difierentirom that where the mean temperature of the cycle isthe highest. 1

In one -method according tomy invention, the eflused gas is caused totravel. around a closed'circuit and 'in'this circuit a part of the heatof the-efi'used gas is.ex-

pended as Work in a prime mover the said' gas being subsequentlyre-calorified by passing itthrough a suitable chamber'in which it iswarme'dby water orother calorifying fluid from a source exterior to thesaid closed This re-calorified gas is then returned into solution in theliquid ,from which it 'was originally, efl'used within absorber andsaturatorcoils or chambers ar-. ranged within efl'usion coils orchambers so that the thermal efi'eets of solution and ,efl'usion maybeexchanged or communicated directly between the: fluidsduring theseproche degradation [of pressure-accompany ing theconve'rsion ,ofheatiinto work inthe grime mover can be conveniently festomd Y workderived from: such conversion, leav ng the remainder of theworkiava'ilablefor'use exterior, to the closed cycle, andthe amount ofthe Work thus availablejsproportional to or a function of the amount ofheat absorbed-from the fluid. bylwhich the'gas is r-calorified. The saidinvention provides an improved method for raisingthe temperature of onemedium by'ilowering the teman appropriate utilization .of part=of the Iperature of 'a' colder. medium,. by transfer- ,ence'of,.temperature-from hot weak liquid h'iams been efiused, to a me- Inanother methed the.

,' caused to travel around a closed circuit and after doing work in 'aprime mover is returned into solution during temperature degradation,while the thermal eife 'ts of efi'usion and solution are exchanged Thefluid 'isthenre-calorified by heatvfrbm a source exterior to the closedcircuit, to make up for the expenditure of, heat as work in the primem'over, by'wateror other cztlorifying fluid passing through the regionwhere the liquid iscoolest', after solution of the "gas therein.

The foregoing methods may be combined as found convenient.

In the accompanying drawings Figure 1 is a diagram showing aninstallation operating according to this invention to convert heatenergy into work. Fig. 2 is a similar diagram showing an installationarranged to operate alternatively as a heating or refrigerating system.

can collect and from which this as can be drawn off through a conduit 6un er the control, if necessary, of a suitable valve or regulatingdevice, and delivered to a working cylinder 0 or like device capableofconverting'the energy stored in the gas in the form of heat andpressure, into useful work. The gas after doing work in the cylinder 0and thereby undergoing a. degradation of both pressure and temperature,is conveyed through a conduit d, to a temperature exchanging devicecomprising a re-calorifying coil earrangedin a conduit or chamber "f.This conduit or chamber 7 is traversed by a current of air, water, wastefurnace gases, exhaust steam, or other source of heat by whichthe'temperature of the gas in the coil e is raised. The exchangingdevice, 6, f,

can be arranged to operate in steps or stages.

in the lower of which brine or equivalent liquid may be used as the heatsource, in

those cases where the degradation of the temperature of the gas inpassing through the cylinder is suflicient to bring about the formationof snow. The' re-calorified gas then passes to a controlling device 9 towhich weak liquid from the generator a is also conducted separately, ashereinafter described, bya pipe h. The device g automatically orotherwise controls the proportions of gas and weak liquid deliveredthrough the conduit 71 to an absorber chamber j, which may be a coil,wholly or partly immersed in the liquidin which a primary return intosolution of the gas is carried on.

This chamber y is arranged within the gen-- *erator a and the sensibleheat evolved by reentrance of the'gas into solution is thus. madeavailable for raising, the temperature of the liquid in the generator ato cause further efiusion of gas from this liquid.

The degree of partial saturation of the eflluent from the absorber 7'due to this primary return of the gas into solution, is thatcorresponding to'tlie pressure of the exhaust gas from the workingcylinder a. This effluent is led by. the pipefla to a pump Z, or otherequivalent-pressure raising device,

' g by which it is raised to the pressurie of the fluid inthe generatora, ponthe' suction or if delivery side of the pressure raising device Z,as may be convenient (shownaon the delivery side'in F ig.* 1)'.theliquid after this primary return of gas into solution therein,

passes through the inner conduit m of a temperature exchanging devicewhose outer conduit n conducts hot weak liquid from the generator a tothe pipe 71. above mentioned. The exchange of heat here taking placelowers the temperature of the hot weak liquid "as required precedent toand in order to promote the primary return of the gas" into solution,and raises the temperature of the partially saturated liquid flowingthrough the This gas from the liquid therein. The completely saturatedliquid passes from the chamber 0 intothe generator through the conduitq.

The flow of the liquid through the generator a from the inlet conduit 9to the outlet into the conduit 1:; is in the opposite direction to theflow through the absorber j and saturator 0. Thus the liquid in thegenerator adjacent to'the outlet to the conduit 41. and adjacent to theparts where the separate stages of solution of the gas begin Within theabsorber and saturator, is at a higher temperature than the liquidentering the generator from the. conduit 9 where thestages ofsolutioneea'se in the absorber and saturator. Also by reason of theeffusion of gas Within the generator the liquid at the liquid outlet endof the, generator is weaker as well 'as-hotter, by reason of the heatevolved in the absorber and saturator and transferred to the liquid inthe generator, than the liquid entering the generator from the conduitq. The liquidand the efi'used gas thus move in closed overlappingcircuits without any of the circulating media leaving the system, andheat energy for example from natural sources such as air and water at vnormal temperatures, or from other sources, exterior to the circuits isabsorbed into the gas which is at a lower temperature,

as this gas passes through the temperature exchanging device a, f, theoperation of the cycle raising this heat energy to a thermal stateconveniently permitting its conversion into work utilizable" outside ofthe circuits.

- pressure at normalatmospher'ie temperature (for calorification bywater say fifty seven "degrees, Fahrenheit). .If the 'circulatory systemisadjus't'ed to cool the water'through about 7" F. (57 to 59) whiletraversing from each pound (avoirdupois) of about seven British thermalunits would be absorbed by the gas traversing the conduit e and becomeavailable for utilization as work in the cylinder '0.

the conduit or chamber f from inlet to outlet (an intermediatetemperature exchanger being provided to avoid formation of ice),

Assuming the rate of flow of the cooled Water to be one pound per secondthe heat energy absorbed by the gas would be equivalent to about tenhorse power.

The arrangement describedwith reference to Figfil in effect constitutesa refrigerating means wherein the temperature exchanging device 6, f, isthe cooling element, the heat abstracted by this means being translatedinto work through the cylinder c.-

In a modified arrangement the re-calorify mg medium raises thetemperature of the liquid after gas has been returned into solu tiontherein. In this case the conduit 03 delivers directly into thecontrolling device 9 and the temperature exchanging device e, f

is arranged between the pump Z and the. heat exchanger m, n. Theimproved closed fluid cycle however may be employed as a heating orrefrigeratin means, as hereinafter described with re erence to Fig. 2..In this case a generator at delivers ga's through b to a pressureregulating valve 0, or like device permitting regulated expansion of thegas which then passes by a conduit d to the temperature exchangingdevice e, 7 operating to cool liquid assing through the conduit orchamber f. he liquid from'the absorber 7'. passes from thepumpl directlythrough the pipe m to' the saturator- '0. The liquid from the generatorto the pipe 7:. is conducted through theinner conduit m of a temperatureexchanging device having its outer con-. duit n arranged to be traversedby liquid to be heated. It will be obvious that the hot weak liquidpassing through the conduit"- m" will impart heat to fluid passingthrough the conduit 01/ and that the temperature ex-' changing device m,n, will thus, becoine awarming element the thermal rise in which willdepend on the degree of cooling undergone by the fluid flowing throughthe conduit e of the temperature exchanging device a, f which 'actsas arefrigerator.

The temperature difi'erenee of the water or other calo'rifying'fiuidatthe inlet and outlet of the system need. not be great, and

the system maybe worked by-st'arting with normal temperatures and,workingto 'sub' normal temperatures'or by starting from a raisedtemperature andworking-to a. lowermal temperatures. 7

'sorbed into the cycle from liquid flowing through the conduit 7 andentering this conduit at a lower temperature than that"Of temperatureeither above, at,. or below nor- Thus heat may be abthe liquid enteringthe conduit 11..

water.

" by additions as required.

The amount of work'done by the system is a function of the temperaturedifierence ofthe water orjother calorifying fluid entering the systemand-that leavingthe system, and of the quantity of :calorifying fluidused.

Any leakage of fluid in the prime-mover or other part of the system ismade good The apparatus'employed for carrying our said invention intopractice has been; re ferred to hereinabove only in general terms andindicated on the drawing diagrammatically since the constructionaldetails of the same are not essential to the invention which is basedupon the provision of means wherebyfgas eflused from a liquid isre-calori- .fied after undergoing thermal degradation, and whereby theincrease of temperature oc-' heat is evolved by the reentrance of thegas. into vsolution'l in the. liquid.

2.. method-off taking energy from a source of heat by; means-of a liquidand--21" gas soluble therein conductedthrough a closed'cycle ofthermal-operations, whereln gas is efl'used' from the liquld at. onepart of the cycle andheat' energy from an .ex-

terior source is taken into the liquid and gas only atfa part of thecycle different fromthatwhere effusion ofgas takes place.

3. A .method oftakingenergy from a source of heat by. means of a liquidanda gas soluble therein conducted through arclosed cycle of thermaloperations, wherein gas effused from the "liquid is cooled,recalorlfiedby heat from a sourceexterior to the cycle. and returnedinto solution in weak liquid from which" gas has been efi'used, and theheat evolved by'reentrance of. the gas into .solution is-employed tocause efi'usion ofgas.

A method of taking energy from a source of heat by means of a liquid anda gas soluble therein conducted through a closed. cycle of thermaloperations, wherein gas is efi'used fromthe liquid at. one part ofthecycle. the efl'used gas is expanded d0- .ing work, the expanded gasis recalorified by taking heat from the said source, the recalorifiedgas isreturned into solution 1n the said liquid evolving heat at anotherpart of the cycle, and thisheat is transferred directly to the liquidand the cycle where effusion. takes place.

gas at the part of 5. A -method of taking energy from a source of heatby means of a liquid and a gas soluble therein conducted through aclosed cycle of thermal operations, wherein gas is efl'used fromtheliquid at one part of the cycle, the effus ed gas is cooled byexpansion, the expanded gas is recalorified by heat received from asource exterior to the cycle, the liquid weakened by effusion of gastherefrom is cooled, the recalorified gas is returned into solution inthe cooled.

liquid in stages at other parts of the cycle, and the heat evolved bythis return 'of the ,gas into solution is employed to cause efiusion ofthe gas from the liquid at the part of the cycle first-mentioned.

6. Apparatus for taking energy from a source of heat by means of aliquid and a gas soluble therein, comprising a generator,

means for controlling expansion of the gas eifused from \the llquid, arecalorifier 1n which the expanded gas receives heat energy from thesaid source, a temperature exchanger'in which liquid weakened byefiusion of gas therefrom-is cooled, and a chamber wherein the gas isreturned into solution in the liquid, the said chamber being arrangedWithin the generator.

